New changes to the auto insurance regulations have been brought in, effective August 1, 2015. A summary of the changes can be found in this bulletin from the Financial Services Commission: https://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/auto/autobulletins/2015a/Pages/a-05-15.aspx
This is a link to the now amended regulation: http://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/960461
Summary of some important points:
*Deductible will now be $36,540 for personal claims and $18,270 for FLA until end of year and then will likely be increased.
*To escape deductible your claim now has to be over $121,799 for personal claims and $60,899 for FLA.
*The tort deductible will now be taken into account when calculating costs
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These are significant changes for the auto insurance regime and for car accident injury victims. As a personal injury lawyer representing injured people I am not exactly objective, but my discussions with people in the community have made it clear to me that the vast majority of Ontario’s citizens (whether they be in Whitby/Oshawa or elsewhere in Ontario) do not agree with a system where a drunk driver who is texting can smash into an innocent person, the innocent person goes on to sustain “permanent and serious injury” and the innocent person then still has over $30,000 “deducted” from their award and that deduction is kept a secret from the jury.
This is a step in the wrong direction and entirely unfair to accident victims. If anything, with the other changes that have reduced car accident injury victim rights, we should have been reducing the deductible or eliminating it entirely. I firmly believe that the majority of Ontario’s population believes that innocent injury victims deserve to be compensated for their loss. Unfortunately, it seems as though the government will soon bring in even more changes that benefit auto insurers and reduce the benefits available to car accident injury victims.